Aircraft collection to be broken up

(First Edition)

A collection of historic aircraft will have to be broken up because its owner has lost his appeal against a local council's refusal to grant him planning permission for it, writes Will Bennett.

Peter Vallance has been given a year to clear 14 planes, representing some of the British aircraft industry's finest post-Second World War designs. It could cost up to 500,000 to move the collection to new homes. Some of the planes, non of which fly, may have to be scrapped.

Mr Vallance, 58, had appealed against Mole Valley district council's refusal to let him keep the collection, which he had built up on green belt land at Charlwood, Surrey, without planning permission. But a planning inquiry conducted by the Department of the Environment has ruled in favour of the council. The collection includes two Shackletons, a Hawker Hunter, a a Canberra, a Gloucester Meteor, a Blackburn Buccaneer and a Westland Whirlwind helicopter.